Mr Bullyproof
Respect Me Annual Conference
Posted: February 9, 2012 at 7:45 pm
This post was written by Mr BullyproofToday I attended Respect Me’s annual conference. I thought it was really good. They had lots of inspirational ideas and a great overall focus. The main theme was on children’s rights. Children have the right to an education and have the right to be protected from harm within schools. Additionally, they have the right to know what their rights are.
I like this focus. I’m all for empowering children. When implemented well, it empowers children to ask questions about their education and their treatment. They can demand action when their rights are not being respected. When these rights are balanced with the child’s own responsibilities, such as attending classes and making the effort to learn, I think we have a good concept in place.
There was a great debate held by pupils from 2 different school on the effectiveness of exclusion. They all did a fastastic job of public speaking to an adult audience who mostly well educated on the subject matter. There was a lengthy Q&A; session and they dealt with some very difficult questions very well.
There were several workshops on during the day. Everyone could attend two. My first was on the use of ‘persona dolls’ to to teach 4-6 year olds about acceptance. Should a teacher overhear racist remarks, for example, instead of immediately confronting it, they can wait until ‘circle time’ and introduce the dolls. The dolls can have quite in depth personalities with differing cultural backgrounds. The children can then learn about the similarities about, and learn how to behave towards, different cultures in a very positive way.
My second workshop was on the use of language. Language is something of a speciality of mine and I was pleased at how well it was delivered. We had to show our opinions on certain statements by moving around the room to the ‘agree’ or ‘disagree’ side. There was a sit on the fence option in the middle which I didn’t bother with. It would have been fun if they had removed that one. The statements were suitably vague so that they could be argued either way and yet they were powerfully worded enough to have an impact. e.g. “Calling someone or something ‘gay’ is acceptable if you don’t mean any offense”. We had a lot of varied opinion and good debate.
I met plenty of wonderful people who are enthusiastic about making a difference in children’s lives. Respect Me is proving to be, not just a valuable resource, but a great organisation for drawing specialists and interested parties together to be able to help schools and other organisations to make positive changes to the ways they currently deal with bullying.
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Bullies are yellow dog cowards who don't have the guts to fight fair. They always start wars they can't lose. My later school years were absolute hell. The teachers turned a blind eye. I got assaulted with a club on the school bus and the old coot bus driver didn't give a damn. Thank God there's a hell where evil bullies will finally get their comeuppance!